Capstone group working on a smart load controller for an off-grid solar power station

The SUNLAB welcomes fourth year electrical engineering undergraduate students Magtireh Mahad, Amadou Erwan Ouedraogo, Sandy Sitamdze and Benjamin Wolf who have been working away at their capstone project since January. They are presently designing controls and power-handling components to regulate fixed increment loads so as to balance power arriving from solar panels and the charge/discharge cycles of a battery bank. They will eventually build, code and operate those controls, integrating one or more pyranometers to sense sun load and estimate the photovoltaic power available. Their project will pause during the summer months and resume in the fall.